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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

The Producers- Now That's What I Call Bad Taste!

Our Lady Has Left the Building

16:30 / 18.03.06

The original film, the remake.

I've been watching the original film, of course since then it's been a play and then a film of the play. While people who haven't seen it know of 'Springtime for Hitler' watching it there's of course so much more, Bialystock's cultivating of old ladies for moneys for his play, Leo Bloom's nerves and their coniving to put on the play, to the extent of walking down a street wearing Nazi armbands.

Was this a film for Jews to laugh at Hitler? Watching it I'm thinking it's probably the most genuinely subversive thing I've ever seen, much more so than most of the empty shock gestures today, am I'm wondering whether people who have seen both the old and the new (and I haven't seen the new version yet), how do they compare?

18:57 / 18.03.06

I thought old one was pretty good, but the new film was one of the worst films I've seen in a long time. Maybe their acting works on stage, but here Lane, and Broderick in particular, were awful, hamming it up so much I think they needed a rabbi on set to keep things kosher. Broderick's acting wasn't bad in the sense that it doesn't help the film, it's so bad that he's painfully annoying in every scene he's in. He's like a retarded version of C-3PO, one of the worst performances ever captured on film.

I don't know how it plays on stage, but this film production was not good.

18:58 / 18.03.06

I should add that "Springtime for Hitler" still works and is the only strong part of the film. If you get the DVD, just watch that and skip the rest.

23:40 / 18.03.06

I think part of the problem with the new film is that the cast is acting as if they were still on Broadway, attempting to reach the back row with the full blast of their voice. With stage, with Broadway, it's sometimes required to over-act to reach everybody. Unfortunately, with film, over-acting is the very first thing you notice...

Other than the director's boooooooooring cuts and pans. The director of this remake was the choreographer on the Broadway play (is that right?) and she has nothing in her director-bag-of-tricks.

Which is a shame, 'cause I love the play.

"Uma, Jerry. Uma."

00:10 / 19.03.06

I love the original film (but haven't seen the musical) and saw the remake with a friend who'd only seen (and loved) the stage version (in both New York and London). Neither of us left particularly impressed, so the verdict seems to be original or play, but not remake of play.

I was expecting a much more 'stagey' film, from what I'd heard, but didn't think it suffered completely in the transfer from stage to screen. The new songs, though, were pretty forgettable and, yes, Matthew Broderick was oddly stiff. I thought he was OK, but he really couldn't compare to Gene Wilder (especially in the 'classic' moments: "I'm wet! I'm hysterical..." etc) and they ruined my favourite line ("That's our Hitler!") - Will Ferrell sadly no substitute for Dick Shawn's LSD.

Going several levels further: What about season 4 of Curb Your Enthusiasm? The last episode revealed that the whole thing *SPOILERS* (Larry David taking the part of Bialystock on Broadway) was an elaborate set-up paying off with a fantastic Producers meta-reference that was far more in line with the wit of the original film and much funnier than the remake could ever aspire to.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

07:49 / 19.03.06

Ferrell plays the writer of the play. Mind you, on the cast list I can't see LSD, so does he play both?

14:47 / 19.03.06

So, Captain-Jack-from-Dr-Who is in the new film, right? Anyone know how many seconds of screen time he gets, how he looks, does he get to dance, etc? I'm sure all this other stuff is important too, but it's the Jack-factor that'll get me either watching/not watching it.

14:48 / 19.03.06

So to speak.

15:10 / 19.03.06

THE PRODUCERS stirs odd and uncomfortable feelings of cognitive dissonance in me (and I'm talking only about the original, here, as I haven't seen either the play or the Broderick/Lane remake). On the one hand, the Nazi stuff is pretty ballsy—and was, remember, even more ballsy in the early 60s, when the War was over barely 20 years. Deflation-by-ridicule is a potent weapon, and Brooks managed to skewer both the Nazi mindset and the anxieties of US Jews. And the satire of then-current youth culture is so quaint and dated as to be harmless—certainly it is today, but I have a feeling that even at the time of release there were no hard feelings.

But the robust queerbaiting really rubs me the wrong way. The characterization of the director is stereotyping for its own sake, with no larger agenda. Nazis and gays, equally risible = Thud.

Brooks's politics got slyer, his hand lighter, by the time of BLAZING SADDLES—a vastly uperior film to THE PRODUCERS, I think. But I find it depressing that a director whose work is generally so affectionate would milk cruelty for comedy in THE PRODUCERS.

That's why my favorite of his early films is still THE TWELVE CHAIRS, which is seriously underrated.

15:49 / 19.03.06

Lady: They combine Franz and LSD in the remake (or rather, they do away with LSD and just have Franz playing Hitler after singing an audition song, which is why the "that's our Hitler" line doesn't really work, for me anyway)

Bedhead: Captain Jack is a blonde haired, white toothed company member, who gets a few close-ups and sings and dances bit, but not a great deal of screen time. Not really worth seeing just for him.

Jack: I guess I tend to block out/forget about the gay jokes. I can sort of accept the stereotyping in the original film (and most of the characters are stereotypes in some way), but the remake really milks it, adding a song involving an all-gay creative team. I felt quite uncomfortable about it, although the reality of theatrical design teams isn't all that far off sometimes... I'm assuming it's all just a dig at how many gay people work in the theatre, but that in itself isn't particularly funny.